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3rd IAALD Africa Chapter ConferenceJohannesburg, South Africa
21-23 May 2012
CTA : Who we are
• CTA is a joint institution of the ACP and the EU (Cotonou Agreement).
• 50 staff from 27 countries
• 27 years of commitment to advancing agriculture and rural communities in ACP•Key role for partners
CTA’s Mission
• To advance food and nutritional security increase prosperity encourage sound natural resource management
• via providing access to information and knowledge, facilitating policy dialogue and strengthening the capacity of agricultural and rural development
institutions and communities in ACP countries
Strategic Goals
• To support well informed, inclusive agricultural policy processes and strategies that empower smallholder producers, women and youth• To promote the development of priority value
chains, especially for smallholder producers• To strengthen the information, communication
and knowledge management capacities of institutions and networks : ICT
Promoting opportunities for youth in agriculture and ICTs
Agriculture, Youth and ICTs• “We recommend that our skills to learn new
technologies are properly valued, particularly in using ICTs” – Declaration of rural youths participating during the IFAD Farmers’ Forum, 18 February 2012, (Italy)• “There is considerable scope for encouraging youth
participation in ICT as a way of supporting agricultural business ventures” (dixit PafPNET/SPC)• Youth spearhead innovation in Agriculture and ICTs
YoBloCo Awards: aims and rationale
• Highlighting success and challenges faced by the youth engaged in agriculture and in rural areas
• Encouraging the production of information and the use of new information technologies by young farmers’ groups and organizations interested in the “youth in agriculture” question
• Promoting the sharing of information on the issues of agriculture and rural development in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries
Structure and organization
• Two categories: Individual category Institutional category
• Selection of winners: Pre-selection Public evaluation process Final evaluation process, undertaken by an
independent jury of experts
• Officially launched on July 23th 2011• Submission closed
October 31st 2011• 92 entries in total, from
24 ACP countries• 69 individual• 23 institutional
Some figures
Public Evaluation
• Launched on December 5th 2011• Closed on December 31st
• 2214 votes were cast by 2080 voters• 612 comments were received for blogs
in the institutional category• 15 finalists for individual category
Evaluation Criteria1. Clarity and quality of language, 2. Originality of posts (written or not by the blogger), 3. Frequency of posting, quality and consistency of original posts, 4. Presence of comments from readers and replies from the blogger, 5. Presence of agricultural related content, 6. Presence of information on the organization's activities (related to agriculture
and youth),7. Presence of youth in agriculture related content, 8. Presence of blog features (adequate presence of widgets, plug-ins,
presentation of the blogger, links etc.) 9. Overall look and feel (adequate multimedia, attractiveness of graphics, legibility
of posts, etc.)
Main themes• Agricultural issues in ACP countries; • Youth involvement in agriculture; • ICT use in agriculture.
Other topics include: climate change education and training agricultural policy and strategy, agricultural value chains gender issues …
Main challenges for youth
• Land availability and quality (including land grabbing by multinationals)
• Improving the educational system• The need to develop market access and to promote transparency
on prices• Psychological and cultural factors that hinder youth involvement in
agriculture• Environmental challenges impacting agricultural sustainability• Engaging youth in policy-making. • …
WinnersIndividual Category1st prize: Nawsheen Hosenally2nd prize: Sourou H. A. NANKPAN3rd prize: Anthony Mwangi
Institutional CategoryCARIBBEAN: Agribusiness Society of the University of West Indies (UWI)EAST AFRICA: Farming and Technology for AfricaWEST AFRICA: Syecomp Business Service
Follow-up survey: some findings (1)
• 14% of respondents comes from rural areas• 54% already had their blog started, while 46%
created the blog for the competition itself• > 90% opened their blog on a free platform, and
almost everybody built the blog by themselves
Follow-up survey: some findings (2)
Follow-up survey: initial impact of YoBloCo
• The contest seems to have contributed to promoting agriculture and youth involvement in the sector• 72% registered a significant increase in the visits to
the blog after entering the YoBloCo Awards• 66% of respondents registered an increase of
feedbacks from the public
Elements of impacts“Blogging is becoming …an excellent avenue for publishing my organization’s activities and marketing of our products and services”
:“Actually, this particular blog post fetched US$ 500 immediately I had published it.
“[I like those blogs because] they both motivate young people to take action while encouraging policy makers to create enabling environment; [Comment left by a voter]
YoBloCo gave me the opportunity to know some of the youth participants … and we have been sharing experiences”
Issues for the next edition(s)
• Strengthen participation in the YoBloCo Awards (as suggested by participants in the 20 May pre-event)• Increase entries from
Pacific, Caribbean, Central Africa and Southern Africa rural areas; youth and farmers organizations
• Enhance the YoBloCo Awards• Follow up with best participants
